A lot of times people don’t think twice when buying household chemical products from the supermarket. Few people actually read the labels to check their contents and even fewer still would research on what harms those listed ingredients can do to them or to the environment. And you know why? They simply don’t want to go through the bother!

Well let us tell you why you should care. First, most incidents of poisoning in the United States happen inside the home. Second, these toxic household substances that you release into the environment damage plant and animal life and then return to you through the air you breathe, the water you drink and the food you eat.

Household chemicals pollute the air.

Many of the household products we use in our homes disperse into the air we breathe. Air fresheners, for example, contain formaldehyde, which is a known carcinogen, while products like paint and solvent can give off volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The latter is a great contributor to the creation of smog and are also sources of greenhouse gases which trap the sun’s heat on the Earth’s surface leading to global warming and climate change.

Household chemicals drain into our water systems.

If you think that just because you ditched that disinfectant into your kitchen sink it’s gone forever, think again. It’s going to haunt you in ways you least expect. Many drains in residential areas, particularly storm drains, lead straight back to the ocean. You can imagine how household chemicals can run off into the sea when the pesticides in our garden or the cleaning agents we use in the garage are washed with water into the storm drains. Other water systems, like the toilet, lead to water treatment plants but not all of these are state-of-the-art facilities and the water it returns to our lakes and rivers can still be harmful to the environment. In return, these chemicals can go back to your home through contaminated food items, like the tuna you’ll be cooking for dinner tonight.

Household chemicals harm the ecology

By contaminating air and water, chemicals can in turn affect the flora and fauna that thrive on these environments. Detergents, for example, contain ethoxylated nonyl phenols (NPEs) which are known endocrine disruptors. They have characteristics like estrogen that can induce female characteristics in small male fishes, affecting their ability to spawn. When the small fishes are decimated, the population of larger fishes and other animals that feed on them also drops. Ingredients of pharmaceutical products like birth control pills drained via urine into waste waters can have similar effects. Other products like carbaryl, a pesticide commonly used in American household gardens, can be acutely toxic to nontarget species like honeybees. When drained into the water systems, it can kill more animals like different species of crustaceans.

Chemicals from synthetic household products are not only dangerous to your health, they also damage our environment. Don’t be fooled, they will NOT dilute that easily into our atmosphere and oceans and can return to harm you in ways you’re not even aware of. Use safe, effective and natural household solutions today like those from BabyGanics. It’s the safe and wise choice.

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